Human Rights

23 Dec 2019; MEMO: Egypt’s former military chief-of-staff Sami Anan was released from detention on Sunday almost two years after his arrest following his plans to compete in the 2018 presidential election, his office manager said on Twitter, Reuters reports.

Anan, now at home according to the manager, was held in a military prison until he suffered a stroke in July 2018 and was then moved to a military hospital in Cairo’s Maadi suburb, where he remained until his release.

23 Dec 2019; MEMO: At least nine civilians were killed in Russian airstrikes in Idlib, northwestern Syria, where acts of violence are prohibited, a local civil defense agency said on Monday, Anadolu reports.

Syrian opposition aircraft monitors said Russian warplanes hit the district of Maarat al-Numan, as well as a number of villages overnight.

According to the White Helmets, the airstrikes killed nine civilians in Idlib.

23 Dec 2019; MEMO: Only 14 per cent of immigrants who arrived in Israel over the past eight years have received Israeli citizenship, a report issued by Israeli NGO Hiddush revealed today.

Reporting Israeli media sources, Quds Press said 86 per cent of those who had moved to Israel were not Jews according to Jewish law, which states that only the child of a Jewish woman or a person who completes a recognised conversion process is considered Jewish.

23 Dec 2019; MEMO: Christians in the Gaza Strip will be allowed to visit holy cities such as Bethlehem and Jerusalem at Christmas, Israel authorities said on Sunday, reversing a decision not to issue them permits, Reuters reports.

Israel tightly restricts movements out of the Gaza Strip, territory controlled by Hamas, an Islamist group that it considers a terrorist organization.

23 Dec 2019; MEMO: The Israeli Ministry of Education has started to implement the terms of the Jewish Nation-State Law, which was adopted by the Knesset (parliament) in 2018 and has been described as “racist” by critics, Quds Press reported on Monday. The ministry ordered civil studies teachers to impress on students that Hebrew is the only official language in Israel.

23 Dec 2019; MEMO: An Egyptian woman died in Qanater Prison in Egypt today after her health deteriorated, making her the first female fatality in an Egyptian jail.

Kanpur (UP), Dec 22 (PTI) A 30-year-old man succumbed to his injuries at a hospital on Sunday, taking the death toll in violence in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur during protests against the citizenship law to three, police said.

Two persons had died on Friday in clashes between the protesters and police.

Another person, Mohd Raees, who sustained critical injuries in Babupurwa, was admitted to the Hallet Hospital on Saturday for treatment, Kanpur range Inspector General Mohit Agarwal said.

New Delhi, Dec 22 (PTI) Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for claiming his government never discussed the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Congress on Monday alleged that the BJP is trying to fool the country.

The BJP in its Jharkhand assembly election manifesto has claimed it will implement the NRC and Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said it will be implemented across the country, but the prime minister is now claiming just the opposite, the Congress said.

Chennai, Dec 23 (PTI) DMK and its allies on Monday took out a protest rally here against the amendment to the Citizenship Act and seeking its withdrawal.

DMK president M K Stalin along with leaders of allies, including senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, MDMK chief Vaiko and state unit leaders of the Left parties were marching from downtown Egmore towards the Rajarathinam Stadium, a distance of about two km.

New Delhi, Dec 23 (PTI) As many as 46 students were detained outside the Uttar Pradesh Bhawan here on Monday when they were about to begin a protest against the police's action during anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act demonstrations in the state.

The protesters were demanding the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the issue.

There are 27 women among those detained.